My first mile!

[skelander]

I did it!

Went swimming today with the intention - after a pretty rough week - to just do a few laps to just get rid of som stress.

I started with my usual 100m (4 lenghts) and it felt pretty good so I just kept going. After 500m I felt that something just clicked; I was breathing slowly and controlled and my shoulders didn't feel tense at all.

At 1000m (that's how far I've swam earlier) I felt like I could go on forever At 1500m I decided to go for the mile and then quit. At 1650m (66 lenghts) I was in heaven

Now - almost 12 hours later - I'm trying to figure out why today was such a good day. Not sure yet, but I think it might have been because I went into the pool with no expectations which made me relax.

My next goal is 2000m. I will make it!

/ Rikard

[andrewuza]

Good Job...

[nicka]

Well done, it is a terrific and satisfying acheivment.

[skelander]

Goal achieved! Last night I swam 2000m in 36:46 minuter.
Next goal: swim for a hour.

[terry]

Nice. 36+ is a brisk pace for 2k!
What was your average SPL -- and how tall are you?

[skelander]

Hi Terry

I'm 190 cm tall (6'3''?) and I think my SLP is around 16-17.

Cheers,
Rikard

[terry]

Rickard
Thanks for the info. At 190cm, you could probably aim at shaving a stroke from that count. I'm 183cm and take 15-17 strokes/25m.

36:00 for 2k is 27 sec per 25 m. I can estimate tempo by allowing 4 seconds for turn and pushoff, leaving 23 sec of stroking time.

At 17 SPL, your average tempo is 1.35 sec/stroke. If you can maintain those stroke counts at tempo of 1.34, 1.33, 1.32, etc. you will steadily improve your time. Every 1/100 sec increase in tempo will shave 13 to 14 sec from your time. I.E. At 1.3 tempo--at same stroke count--you'll swim over a minute faster.

[skelander]

Sounds like I need a tempo trainer.

[skelander]

I've been working on lowering my SPL and at todays practise I managed to swim several laps (25m) with a SPL of 14. This includes starting with a approx. 3 m push-off, so maybe the real SPL is higher?

/ Rikard

[terry]

Rikard
Did you feel relaxed on those 14spl laps? That's a reasonable SPL for your height and 25m. 3m is a fairly short pushoff though. Is that the point your hands were at when you took your first stroke. Or do you estimate your feet were that far from the wall?